Don’t Blame Me, 2010, by Wes Lang
Everything
Recently, I have returned to an artist’s work that was incredibly formative in laying the foundation of what I make today, after forgetting about it for a number of years because I have been building a life on top of that foundation but I forgot that it is the basis of everything and now, as I rummage through that basement, I find the work still moves me like it did back then, only now I understand it better because I have lived more life and experienced more shit and listened to more music and become more enlightened, culturally and spiritually, and because of that, it resonates more than ever, and now, I realise that encountering Wes Lang’s work was a rare moment of feeling understood because even the art world has rules that can make you feel excluded, even though art itself does not have rules, and his work gives me permission that I didn’t realise I was asking for and all I had to do was leave time alone because if I did not let it marinate all these years, I would not appreciate knowing that Lang is from New Jersey the way I do now, having been born and raised there myself, because it turns out there is a basement below that basement and that is where the two of us meet.
September 2024